Judaism vs. Christianity
The Two Inclinations
By
James Scott Trimm

When we look at the basic emphasis of Judaism* and of Christianity, we find that there is a core difference at their very root.  This core difference is closely tied to the two inclinations within man, the Yetzer Ra (the evil inclination) and the Yetzer Tov (the good inclination).

R. Nahman b. R. Hisda expounded:
What is meant by the text, Then the Lord God
formed [va-yetzer] man? [The word va-yetzer] (Gen. 2:7)
is written with two yods, to show that God created
two inclinations, one good (tov) and the other evil (ra).
(b.Ber. 61a)

It has been taught: R. Jose the Galilean says,
The righteous are swayed by their good inclination,
as it says, My heart is slain within me. (Ps. 109:22)
The wicked are swayed by their evil inclination,
as it says, Transgression speaks to the wicked,
methinks, there is no fear of God before his eyes.
(Ps. 36:1) Average people are swayed by both
inclinations, as it says, Because He stands at
the right hand of the needy, to save him from them
that judge his soul. (Ps. 109:31) Raba said: People
such as we are of the average.
(b.Ber. 61b)

Likewise we read in the Wisdom of Ben Sira:

It was He who created man in the beginning.
And He left him in the power of his own inclination (Heb: yetzer).
If you will, you can keep the commandments,
and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.
He has placed before you fire and water:
Stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.
 (Sira 15:14-16)

Paul writes of the two inclinations as well saying:

14 For we know that the Torah is of the spirit,
but I am of the flesh and I am sold to sin.
22 For I rejoice in the Torah of Eloah in the inward son of man.
(Romans 7:14, 22 HRV)

Because of this, we are not weary, for even if our
outer man is corrupted, yet that which [is] inside
is renewed day by day.
(2Cor. 4:16 HRV)

for the flesh desires a thing which is opposed to
the Spirit and the Spirit desires a thing that is
opposed to the flesh and the two of these are
opposed to each other, that you do not do the thing
which you desire.
(Gal. 5:17 HRV)

And as we read in Tanya:

Just as two kings wage war over a town,
which each wishes to capture and rule,
that is to say, to dominate its inhabitants according to his will,
so that they obey him in all that he decrees for them,
so do the two souls— the Divine and the vitalizing animal soul…
wage war against each other over the body and all its limbs.
(Tanya Chapter 9)

Now through our intellect, we receive the Wisdom of the Torah, and having heard the Wisdom of Torah we subject it to Understanding.  When Wisdom (chochmah) is subjected to Understanding (binah) the result is Knowledge (da’at)… it is Knowledge that brings Wisdom and Understanding together.  When we receive as Wisdom a precept of Torah, and that precept like a seed enters into Understanding then that precept becomes part of us as our Knowledge.  As we read in the Tanya:

Specifically: the faculties of ChaBaD in his soul are clothed in the comprehension of the Torah, which he comprehends in Pardes, to the extent of his mental capacity and the supernal root of his soul.
(Tanya Chapter 4)

Now, when an intellect conceives and comprehends a concept with its intellectual faculties, this intellect grasps the concept and encompasses it. This concept is [in turn] grasped, enveloped and enclothed within that intellect which conceived and comprehended it.

The mind, for its part, is also clothed in the concept at the time it comprehends and grasps it with the intellect. For example, when a person understands and comprehends, fully and clearly, any halachah (law) in the Mishnah or Gemara, his intellect grasps and encompasses it and, at the same time, is clothed in it.
(Tanya Chapter 5)

And after a bit more we read:

Since, in the case of knowledge of the Torah, the Torah is clothed in the soul and intellect of a person, and is absorbed in them, it is called “bread” and “food” of the soul. For just as physical bread nourishes the body as it is absorbed internally, in his very inner self, where it is transformed into blood and flesh of his flesh, whereby he lives and exists— so, too, it is with the knowledge of the Torah and its comprehension by the soul of the person who studies it well, with a concentration of his intellect, until the Torah is absorbed by his intellect and is united with it and they become one. This becomes nourishment for the soul, and its inner life from the Giver of life, the blessed En Sof, Who is clothed in His wisdom and in His Torah that are [absorbed] in it [the soul].

This is the meaning of the verse, “Yea, Thy Torah is within my inward parts.”

It is also stated in Etz Chayim, Portal 44, ch. 3, that the “garments” of the soul in the Can Eden (Paradise) are the commandments while the Torah is the “food” for the souls which, during life on earth, had occupied themselves in the study of the Torah for its own sake. It is [similarly] written in the Zohar. As for the meaning of “For its own sake,” it is [study with the intent] to attach one’s soul to G-d through the comprehension of the Torah, each one according to his intellect, as explained in Peri Etz Chayim.
(Tanya Likutei Amarim 5)

 

And as we read in the Zohar:

 

Rabbi El’azar said, “Whoever engages in Torah for her own sake,
does not die by means of the Yetzer Ra (Evil Inclination),
since he grasps the Tree of Life, never letting go.”
(Zohar 1:168a)

This is the key.  The basis of true Judaism is studying and observing Torah “for its own sake” as we read in the Mishna:

Antigones of Soko received [Torah] from Simeon the Righteous. He used to say, “Be not like servants who serve their master for the sake of wages, but be like servants who serve their master with no thought of a wage – and let the fear of Heaven be upon you.”
(m.Avot 1:3)

The main basis of true Judaism is to study and observe Torah “for its own sake” out of the love and awe for Elohim that naturally results and unites us with Elohim.  This does not mean that there is no reward, or that there is no afterlife, but it means that we are not motivated by that reward.  So if we do not observe Torah as one wishing to earn something, what is our motive? The Torah answers this question:

…you shall diligently keep all of these commandments
which I command you, to do them, to love YHWH your Elohim,
to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him.
(Deut. 11:22)

You shall walk after YHWH your Elohim,
and fear him, and keep his commandments,
and obey his voice, and you shall serve him,
and cleave unto him.
(Deut. 13:5 (13:4))

We must observe Torah as one cleaving to YHWH. The Hebrew word for “cleaving” is DEVEKUT (DEVEKUS in Ashkenazi). When we observe Torah it should not be an empty act, but an act of DEVEKUT, of cleaving or communion to YHWH.

The motive of Devekus is a pure motive, “for its own sake” and this is true Judaism.

Christianity has a very different guiding motive.  When I speak to Christians about Torah observance, their first question is “Do I have to do those things to be saved?”  And if they are told that they do not have to do those things to be saved, then they are totally disinterested in them.  In short, Christianity tends to be primarily interested in what they do or not have to do to obtain a reward.  This is the complete opposite of Judaism.

This agrees well with what we read in the Tanya:

The explanation [of the questions raised above] is to be found in the light of what Rabbi Chayim Vital wrote in Sha’ar ha-Kedushah (and in Etz Chayim, Portal 50, ch. 2) that in every Jew, whether righteous or wicked, are two souls, as it is written, “The neshamot (souls) which I have made,” [alluding to] two souls. There is one soul which originates in the kelipah and sitra achra, and which is clothed in the blood of a human being, giving life to the body, as is written, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” From it stem all the evil characteristics deriving from the four evil elements which are contained in it. These are: anger and pride, which emanate from the element of Fire, the nature of which is to rise upwards; the appetite for pleasures— from the element of Water, for water makes to grow all kinds of enjoyment; frivolity and scoffing, boasting and idle talk from the element of Air; and sloth and melancholy— from the element of Earth. From this soul stem also the good characteristics which are to be found in the innate nature of all Israel, such as mercy and benevolence. For in the case of Israel, this soul of the kelipah is derived from kelipat nogah, which also contains good, as it originates in the esoteric “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.” The souls of the nations of the world, however, emanate from the other, unclean kelipot which contain no good whatever, as is written in Etz Chayim, Portal 49, ch. 3, that all the good that the nations do, is done from selfish motives. So the Gemara comments on the verse, “The kindness of the nations is sin,”— that all the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their own self-glorification, and so on.
(Tanya; Likutei Amarim 1)

The Tanya is telling us that even when the Goyim do good things, it is always with a selfish motive, and thus it originates from the Yetzer Ra, not the Yetzer Tov.  So is it with Christianity, though Christians may at times do good deeds, their primary focus is on “being saved” which in their vocabulary is synonymous with having a reward in the afterlife.  The primary focus on Christianity is a selfish motive, rooted in the Yetzer Ra, while the primary focus of true Judaism is to cleave to YHWH through studying and observing Torah “for its own sake” and is rooted in the Yetzer Tov.

I know this will be a controversial statement to some, but true Judaism is rooted in the Yetzer Tov but the focus of Christianity is rooted in the Yetzer Ra.

( * Though out this article I refer to “Judaism” and “true Judaism”- be aware that I see Nazarene Judaism as “true Judaism” – The Nazarenes being the original Jewish followers of Yeshua ), 

 

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